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INDIAN ANTIQUARY, VOL. XXXIII, 1904; APPENDIX.
(82, B.
held sacred and are worshipped, the Veda and the Sāstras exist, even for the modern Hinda, only in the mouth of the teacher, whose word has more weight than & written text, and they can only be learned properly from a teacher, not from MSS. Even in our days, the Hindus esteem only the mukhastha vidyā, the learning which the Pandit has imprinted on his memory. Even in our days, learned discussions are carried on with reference to living speech, and even the modern poets do not wish to be read, but hope that their verses will become "Ornaments for the throats of the learned" (satan kanthabhasana). As far as our observation reaches, this state of things has been always the same since the earliest times. Its ultimate cause probably is that the beginning of the Hindu Sāatras and poetry goes back to a time when writing was unknown, and that a system of oral teaching, already traceable in the Rgveda, was fully developed before the introduction of written characters. The reasons just stated do not permit us to expect many traces of the use of writing in the works of the schools of priests or Pandits, or to look in them for frequent references to letters and written documents. But, on the other hand, there is nothing to bar the conjecture, repeatedly put forward, that, even during the Vedic period, MSS. were used as auxiliaries both in oral instruction and on other occasions. And, as an argument in favour of this conjecture, it is now possible to adduce the indisputable fact that the Brāhmi alphabet has been formed by phonologists or by grammarians and for scientific use.
Bat such Brahmanical works as the Epics, Pariņas, Kavyas, dramas, &c., which describe actual life, or the metrical law-books which fully teach not only the sacred but also the civil and criminal law, as well as compositions such as the Niti., Nāļya-, and Käma-sästras which exclusively refer to worldly matters, contain numerous references to writing and to written documents of various kinds, and likewise evidence for the occurrence of MSS. of literary works. Unfortunately, however, it is not possible to assert of any of the existing books of these classes, excepting the two Epics, that they are older than the period to which the oldest inscriptions belong. And even the evidence of the Epics may be impagned, since we cannot prove that every word of their texts goes back to a high antiquity. Professor Jacob's examination of the several recensions of the Rāmāyana has shown that the greater part of the verses, Dow read, did not belong to the original poem. As far as is known at present, the MSS. of the Mahābharata do not show equally great variations. But the existence of the majority of its chapters can be proved only for the eleventh century A. D. Though the testimony of the Epics can, therefore, only be used with due reserve, yet it is undeniable that their terms regarding writing and writers are archaic. Like the canonical works of the Southern Buddhists, they use the ancient expressions likh, lekha, lekhaks, and lekhana, not the probably foreign word lipi.
The most important passages of the Epics, concerning writing, have been collected in the St. Petersburg Dictionary under the words mentioned, and by J. DAHLMANN, Das Mahabharata, 185 ff. Regarding the passages on writing in Manu, see the Index in Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXV, under "Documents," and for the legal documents, described in the later Smstis, see Vol. II. of this Encyclopedia, Part 8, Recht und Sitte, $85. An interesting collection of statements regarding MSS. in the Parāņas is found in Hemidri's Dánakhanda, Adhy. 7, p. 544 f. (Bibl. Ind.). The Kamasutra I, 3 (p. 33, Durgaprasād) enumerates pustakavācana, "the reading of MSS.," among the 64 kalās.
B. - Buddhistio literature, [6] More important than the testimony of the Brahmans is that of the Ceylonese Tripitaka, where numerous passages' bear witness not only to an acquaintance with writing, but also to its extensive use at the time when the Buddhist canon was composed. Lekha,writing,"
1 See below, page 17. JACOBI, Das Rim. 3 ff. KIRSTX in B.18. 11,27 11. Bee below, under B.
. B.IS. III., 7-16; OLDAN BERO, SBR. 18, XXXII ff.; D'ALWIS, Introd. to Kaocãyea's Gram. XXVI., CXV 1., 72-103 ; WIBER, Ind, Streifen 2, 387 4.
